Fly me to the Moon – for £100m (million)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f5af9e2a-ba21-11e1-aa8d-00144feabdc0.html

Britain could become the first country to fly a tourist around the moon, after an Isle of Man-based company announced that it would be ready to take passengers on private lunar expeditions by 2015. Excalibur Almaz will charge wannabe astronauts an average of £100m for a six-eight month journey exploring deep space.

Three wealthy individuals, or astronauts from emerging powers will be crammed into a reusable capsule the size of a waste skip and launched by rocket to a space station. After the two vehicles link up, they will travel on to the Moon. “It is like how private British companies led expeditions to the South Pacific in the 17th century,” said Art Dula, founder of Excalibur Almaz. “We’ve just gone from seafaring to spacefaring.”

The company, run by Americans, chose to be based in the Isle of Man because of the island government’s commitment to the space industry, which ministers forecast will soon make up more a third of its gross domestic product. The lack of corporation tax and proximity to the City are also advantages. Unlike SpaceX, its US rival, Excalibur Almaz has not received any American government subsidies. Its biggest advantage is its second-hand Soviet spacecraft which have helped Excalibur Almaz avoid the laborious process of developing and testing new equipment.

Mr Dula, a long-time space enthusiast, bought the kit from Russia after working as a patent lawyer in the industry. He and his business partner are the only investors in the company, which started in 2005. The entrepreneur says this should help the company take passengers deeper into space than competitors such as Virgin Galactic. Sir Richard Branson’s venture will only allow tourists to orbit the earth, though its price is also less stellar, at £200,000.

James Oberg, a space flight consultant, said there were other companies exploring lunar missions, including as yet anonymous players but that none could start sending people as early as 2015. However, Ken Pound, a professor of space physics at the University of Leicester, said the company would have to make remarkable progress to fly around the moon by then. “I would put my money on China getting there sooner,” he said, adding that as the original Soviet designs are old, safety will be an especially key issue for a commercial enterprise.

(more at link)

Isn't it a shame that going to the Moon is so much more difficult and expensive than was imagined back in the '40s?